Do you think Im ready for a Mandarin?

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by mike31154

. None of the posters advising against getting one have validated their advice with personal experience. I may be wrong and if I am, apologize, but it appears some of this advice is based on second or third party information.

hmm nice asumption, but wrong. I had two of them in my tank a male and femail and one lived for 4 years the other for 5. neither ate prepared food, and contrary to Marie's that is a rarity. seeign she is so lucky I would recomend she go buy a powerball ticket

as for looking to see whats running around at nigh.. thats a waist of time, if you can see pods during the day you should figure out how to get more in your tank. it isn't the big ones they eat, but rather the babbys and different types.. but seeing pods scurring about your tank is a good indacator of the overall helth of your tanks bug population.

now alot of poeple saying go for it are not qualntifying there answers, are you listing what you had for a tank, what fish were in it? did you have 4 other fish that are direct competers for food in the tank?

ok enough of that. what can you do to improve you chances..

1, get rid of the golbies. but not a good solution for most.

2, build pod piles, very easy to do and cheep. just break down old live rock into 1-2" chunks and make big piles of this rubble behind your rocks. the size of the rocks has to be big enough that there is lots of nooks and crannys but small enough that preditory fish can not get in the structure. this gives the pods a safe haven breading ground. I had 4 of these about 2" wide, 6 inches long and 8" high behind the rock in my 94gal.

other than the food issue I find mandrins a very hardy fish and I will always have one in my tanks over 50 gal, but the tanks needs to be able to provide for them unless you have the holy grail of mandrins like Marie.

Steve

[sphelps]

People tend to overreact with certain fish, they themselves will keep such fish without a problem but advise others to avoid them or take extreme precautions which are mostly unnecessary. It's for this reason another larger site had to build primer threads so people could simply post personal experience which others could use, this avoids similar threads to this which cause over-reactions.

Eb, you seem like a smart guy and I don't think you're a fish terrorist so I'm sure you can see through some of the BS out there and do what you believe to be right.

[Eb0la11]

Originally Posted by sphelps

People tend to overreact with certain fish, they themselves will keep such fish without a problem but advise others to avoid them or take extreme precautions which are mostly unnecessary. It's for this reason another larger site had to build primer threads so people could simply post personal experience which others could use, this avoids similar threads to this which cause over-reactions.

Eb, you seem like a smart guy and I don't think you're a fish terrorist so I'm sure you can see through some of the BS out there and do what you believe to be right.

Haha thanks Sphelps, this is exactly how I was feeling lol.

I have taken in the advice from this thread but Ive also done my hw by reading articles and I think my tank is well on the way to providing for a mandarin and already can.

Eventually I'll be getting two, but just so you all know I picked up one from a reefer last night.

[sphelps]

Good for you buddy

[Eb0la11]

Oh ya, and he's doing fine so far. Already working over the rocks, looks very peaceful and stress free.

[rocco134]

There name definitely suits their disposition (they are like a Zen garden -lol if that makes any sense)

Originally Posted by Eb0la11

Oh ya, and he's doing fine so far. Already working over the rocks, looks very peaceful and stress free.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Eb0la11

Oh ya, and he's doing fine so far. Already working over the rocks, looks very peaceful and stress free.

which one did you end up getting? green spotted or the psyadelic? and is it a male or female?

Steve

[Eb0la11]

Naesco, thank you for your concern. My mandarin won't be starving. I can see hundreds of pods crawling on the glass of my refugium as we speak and Im sure that they are getting injected into the DT all the time, not to mention I have some very porous rock for pods to grow, mate and live in the DT away from predators, so there is tons there.

I ended up getting a psychedelic and I believe he is a male. Thank you Eyford01 for the mandarin, he is looking better already after being QTed in his tank the last couple days because he was getting picked on by another mandarin. So this is a good setup. Already he is working around the tank, entering the dens of my tangs for example, and not getting picked on for it all while nipping at the rock every so often. He is very happy to be in his new home!